Here's the continuation of "The Hunting Party"

Episode 5: The Hunting Party Part 2

Description: Marco and Star go out hunting with Jackie. When things get awkward, Star takes them both to the Wild Game Dimension, where all the Mythical Creatures live.

Thanks to the following Betas for helping me:

PaintedPetrichor
Sabrina06
silver tears85

Credit to kprovido from DeviantArt for the cover art

Enjoy

The lush, green forests were the first things the trio saw when they stepped out the portal. Marco took in his surroundings, seeing a variety of different environments placed side-by-side. One section consisted of forest while right next to it, barren, desolate desert stretched all the way to the horizon. After the desert, lay a dense, vegetation-laden rain forest. It contrasted with the sparsity of the rocky, sandy desert beside it.

Marco looked all around, taking in the changing environments and how impossible such a thing would be.

"Star, where did you bring us?" Jackie asked, looking side-to-side between the shifting environments.

"Only the best vacation spot in the universe." Star's eyes widened as she looked up to see the griffins flying overhead. "The Wild Game Dimension, home of every mythical creature ever imagined." A unicorn galloped into the rain forest, as a herd of chimeras chased after it. In the desert biome, rock giants raised from the ground, before trudging their way across the desert. Something beneath the ground zoomed past the lumbering stone masses.

Marco shuffled to the side as a couple of centaurs rushed past. A loud splash burst from the tundra waters. The trio turned their heads toward the tundra, as a phoenix rose above the water, fish latched on its beak. In a single motion, it swallowed the fish whole, and dove back into the cold waters.

"Wait, wouldn't water extinguish a phoenix?" Marco asked.

"Nah mate, because of its internal flame, a phoenix in anything hotter would fry the poor bird."

Star, Marco and Jackie turned around to see a bearded man walking up to them. He adjusted his trilby with a metallic arm.

"Brevon!" Star pounced the man, wrapping her arms around him.

The man hugged her back and said, "Star Butterfly, it's been so long. What have you been up to lately?"

"Well, you know, just royal Mewni things," Star said, shifting her shoulders in a shrug. "Oh wait, Brevon, I got my wand now." She pulled out her purple wand with the star insignia, as a Centaur trotted by. A beam of blue light fired straight at the centaurs head; it transformed into another torso. Marco backed away, taking a quick glance before turning away from it, shivering.

"I didn't expect you to grow up so fast, Star."

"Well, it has been a while, hasn't it?" Star turned around to see Marco and Jackie staring at the landscapes, pointing out other mythical creatures. "Brevon, come meet my friends." She dragged him by the mechanical arm, almost tripping him over. Star whistled to grab their attention. "Guys, this is Lord Brevon, he's the guy that runs this place."

"The Lord part is just an intergalactic formality, please just call me Brevon," he said. "Welcome to my little piece of heaven, The Wild Game Dimension."

"Dude, this place is awesome," Jackie said.

"Yeah, the animals here are things you can only find a fairy tale," Marco said. "How did you get them all here in one dimension?"

"Well…" Brevon bent down, letting a black, fork-tongued snake slither up his metal arm. "My ancestors were avid hunters and mythical creature connoisseurs. They loved the thrill of the hunt, and turning fairy tale creatures into trophies.

"However, they weren't satisfied with just collecting trophies. They wanted more, they wanted a place where all the creatures congregated in one place, for everyone to see. Thus, for generations, we have been finding and capturing mythical creatures across the galaxies, breeding them until they have created a vibrant ecosystem of many animals. I carry a legacy that spans thousands of years of hunting and breeding. It is my duty to maintain this dimension, and all the creatures that call this place, home."

Marco raised his hand.

"Yes, you in the red sweater and tacky vest," Brevon said, pointing at Marco. Marco scowled.

"How did you do the shifting climate thing?" Marco asked, directing everyone to the part where the rain forest turns into a tundra. "How does that work?"

"The shifting… Oh, that's, um, it's a family secret." Brevon scratched the back of his neck, while his lips formed a lopsided smile. "Anyhow, you're free to do all the hunting you wish. Always take caution though, as the creatures here are fierce and unpredictable. You don't know when something will sneak up from behind and—"

A massive, silverback gorilla snatched Brevon into the air. Brevon struggled against the gorilla's grasp, trying to squirm out; he screamed for help. The gorilla used Brevon to rub his back, smothering the poor man in gorilla fur.

Marco lifted his head to see the gorilla's face. It grinned and sighed as it rubbed Brevon back and forth on its back.

Star pulled out her wand and aimed it at the gorilla's head.

"Icy wind—"

"Star, I got this," Jackie said, pulling out a scoped rifle. From her ammo pack, she took out a pack of green darts and placed one into the chamber. She took aim and pulled the trigger. The dart hit straight onto the side of the neck.

The gorilla tumbled around before collapsing on its back. It loosened its grip on Brevon, letting him go. The trio caught up to him, and helped him up.

He cleared his throat and said, "Thank you. See, creatures here are all unpredictable, so you must always take the proper precaution." Brevon sniffed himself, his face formed a scowl in an instant. The three noticed a pungent scent, they quickly covered their noses. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to change trousers." Brevon scurried away, holding his backside in.

Star ran off to the rain forest, motioning the other two to follow. "Come on guys, I think the manticores are in this forest."

"Coming." Jackie started to saunter off, before noticing Marco hadn't moved an inch. He gazed into the empty pastures, unblinking. "You alright, Marco?"

He came to his senses, shaking his head and stammering out random syllables. "Yeah, yeah, I'm good." Marco picked up his pace and tried to catch up with Star. He pulled out his rifle, holding it with both hands. "Come on, we got some hunting to do."

Marco put on a forced grin as the thought of a manticore gnawing on him ran through his head.

Jackie lay on the patch of grass, on her stomach. She kept the scope of the rifle pressed to her eye. Marco imitated Jackie, bringing his shaky arms up with the rifle.

A pair of binoculars emerged from Star's wand. She looked through them, only to find gremlins and fox-like creatures scurrying about. Star turned her head towards Jackie, who was still looking down the scope of the gun.

"You're not going to kill them, are you?" Star asked. Jackie took her eye off the scope. "Please tell me you won't."

"Nah, I'm using the tranquilizer darts instead." Jackie aimed the rifle down the lush forest. "Does Brevon mind if we take anything home?"

Star shrugged, she said, "Well, I've always wanted a pet manticore. I don't see why we can't take one. I'll ask him later."

"Make sure you keep it in your room, Star," Marco said. "I don't want to get mauled by another giant feline creature again."

"I thought it really liked you, Marco."

"He was willing to get friendly, that's for sure." Marco caressed the bite marks underneath his chest.

"Keep it down, you two," Jackie snapped, "I think I found something. Star get a closer look… a bit to the left."

Star pulled up her binoculars. She found a lion-like creature, with a scorpion tail, standing upright beside a tree. It hopped up from the ground, pawing at an owl-like creature perched on a high-up branch.

Jackie steadied her aim on the manticore. The crosshairs positoned on its neck. She had her finger on the trigger

3… 2… 1—

A loud bang pierced the air. A bullet struck the tree and the manticore backed away from the smoldering bullet hole.

"Marco!"

Marco noticed the slight whiff of smoke from the muzzle of the gun. He slammed his face with both hands.

"Sorry, sorry—"

"Guys, I think we have a manticore coming our way," Star said.

The manticore converged towards the trio. It popped out of the bush and dove at Marco.

Marco reached for his rifle as the manticore's tail hung above his head. It seemed the tail froze above Marco for hours; manticore saliva dripped onto his chest. Marco reeled his head back as the creature leaned forward. The sound of a dart flew by before puncturing the manticore's neck.

It eyes struggled to stay open. The manticore fell to the side, moaning before passing out.

Marco backed away from the unconscious manticore, whimpering and shaking.

"You okay, Marco?" Jackie asked, looking at him with unblinking eyes and a straight expression.

"Yeah, I'm fine, that was just my special bait technique." Marco stood up straight, forcing out a smirk. "Bait the prey to come closer, then it's an easy target for you to clean up."

"Well, that's how hunting accidents occur, Marco," Jackie said. She stuffed all the darts back into her pouch and hung the rifle off her back. "But, I appreciate the effort. Try not to do that again, for your own safety."

Jackie's words rendered Marco speechless. Star bumped her elbow on his shoulder.

"Good recovery, Marco" Star noticed Marco's legs wobbling. "Stop shaking."

The trio walked out of the forest with Star levitating the manticore with her wand. Jackie and Star took turns petting its mane.

"It's so cute," Star said.

"Yeah, it's adorable when it's asleep," Jackie said as she snuggled her face in its thick fur.

"Remember to keep it in your room and take good care of it," Marco said. "And make sure it doesn't try to go outside, I've read about these things and they like the taste of human flesh."

"Come on, Marco, I'm a great pet owner. Remember the Atlantean piranha my dad sent over? I fed it, cherished it and cleaned it."

"Wait, are you talking about the one you flushed down the toilet?" Marco asked.

Star stared into the toilet bowl as a blue piranha swam against the flushing current.

"Go, Bluesy, Go!"

The toilet engulfed the piranha, leaving nothing behind when the water rose back up.

"Aww" Star said, dropping her head with a frown.

Marco knocked on the door and asked, "Star, why am I getting status updates by everyone in Echo Creek about piranhas popping out of their toilets?"

"Uh, oh."

Star shrugged, she said, "Who knew Atlantean piranhas could breed that fast in sewage?"

"So that explains the dead piranhas stuck in the pipes," Jackie said. "And here I thought someone from school pulled off some massive prank or something."

"Nope, that's just a typical Monday with Star," Marco said. "You get used to it."

"Better than watching Monday Night Football with Dale every week, that's for sure."

They reached a wooden shack on the edge of the forest. Brevon came out of the door, rushing towards Star. She dropped the comatose manticore in at his feet.

"What's this?" Brevon bent down and pulled its head closer for inspection. "Star, you brought dinner for tonight?"

"What, no," she stammered, "I was just wondering if we could bring this back home, as a pet."

"Manticores don't make good pets." Brevon stretched the manticore's mouth wide open, peering into its depth. "Unless you have access to a sustainable amount of human flesh. Also, don't touch the tail, under any circumstances, unless you like losing limbs." Brevon looked down at his metallic arm and squeezed the palm of the barely functional hand. "How did you manage to subdue such a ferocious creature?"

"It was all thanks to Jackie, and those sleepy dart things," Star said.

"Yeah, all it takes is a shot to the neck with one of these"—Jackie pulled out a green tranquillizer dart from her pouch—"and you can put anything to sleep…" She noticed a black, puma-like beast with appendages sprouting out from the shoulder. It seemed to approach them, picking up speed as it got closer to the group. She inserted a dart into the rifle.

"Hey Brevon, can you move to the side, please?" He complied, shuffling to the left while Jackie pulled up her rifle. She took aim at the advancing black mass and pulled the trigger. It fell to the side and stopped moving.

"Nice shot, Jackie." Star's binoculars reappeared and she looked through them to find a six-legged creature with two tentacles popping out the shoulders.

"What did you shoot, Jackie?" Marco asked.

"I don't know," Star said, focusing on its thick, muscular appendages, "it looks like some puma-octopus thing."

"Puma-octo… Star pass me your binoculars." Star tossed the binoculars to Brevon. He stared down the lens, dropping the binoculars and shuffling back. His lips trembled as he stuttered, "That's no ordinary puma, that's a displacer beast. They don't tend to leave the forest."

Marco craned his neck, indicating to the others to look behind them.

A pack of heavy, grotesque wolves sprinted towards the shack. One of them hopped over the lead wolf, its mouth foaming and drooling.

Jackie placed her dart rifle on her back and armed herself with a shotgun. Star held out her wand towards the wolf pack. Marco raised his arms up, before putting them back down again.

"Star, can't we just use the dimensional scissors to get out, right now?"

"Oh yeah, we can," Star replied. "Brevon, you fine with handling things on your own?"

"Yeah, I can lead the dire wolves back, you kids just run home now with the manticore."

"Great, I think we've done enough hunting today, let's go…" Star felt around her dress and looked through her bag, only to find no pair of scissors anywhere. "Guys, I think I left the scissors at the hunting spot."

Marco and Jackie turned their heads to Star and scowled.

"Sorry."

Marco lifted his head up, he said, "Oh no."

A group of griffons flew in the direction of the group. Ludo rode on top of one, holding onto its neck with one hand, and the whistle with another.

"You may be able to take on my army, Star Butterfly, but let's see if you can handle the sheer number of creatures coming your way." Ludo blew the whistle, the griffons grimaced from the incredibly high pitch.

Jackie fired at the closest wolf. It brushed off the shell and pounced her. She knocked the wolf away with the butt of her gun. She opened her ammo pouch, to find a box of blank cartridges.

"Oh that's right, Dale bought blanks."

Marco kicked a dire wolf. The wolf tumbled on the ground before landing on its legs. He hopped back to Jackie, still searching her bag for anything with real gunpowder.

"We have to get out of here," Marco pleaded, pointing to the clearing on the other side. "There's no way we can handle that."

An onslaught of mythical beasts rushed in the direction of the shack. A hydra in the front led the army of creatures.

Brevon came back riding a unicorn, with a second one trotting beside it.

"Hop on, everyone, we'll lose them in the forest."

Star leapt on the rider-less unicorn and pulled Jackie up. Marco lifted himself up behind Brevon

The unicorns galloped into the forest. Ludo flew his griffon over the trees.

"All according to plan."

There were mythical creatures behind Star, as well as in front of her. All of them seemed eager to devour the group as they escaped into the forest.

Star and Brevon rode their unicorns on the trail. A dire wolf tailed right behind Star and Jackie. Each leap closed the distance between them. Jackie shot at the onslaught behind them, the adrenaline rising as the wolves rushed closer.

"Banana Pratfall Galore!"

Hundreds of banana peels covered the trail behind Star. The monsters behind slipped on the peels, tumbling on their heads and backs.

Star broke off from the path and rode into the dense cover of trees. Brevon followed suit.

A golden-furred bear popped out from the bushes. The unicorn scurried to dodge the swipe. Jackie blew him back with a shotgun blank. Star directed the unicorn deeper into the forest.

"You've gotten a lot better at unicorn riding, Star," Brevon said.

"Yeah, my dad taught me himself."

"That's lovely."

Star leapt over a plummeting tree. She looked to the side to see a one-eyed ogre picking up the tree. She commanded the horse to sprint as the ogre threw the tree over their heads. The tree landed behind them.

"Speaking of your father, how is King Butterfly? I haven't seen him here in such a long time."

"Oh, you know, he's been busy with king duties and lectures."

From atop the trees, a koala-like creature dropped down onto Brevon and Marco.

"Someone get this Drop bear out of my face," Brevon pleaded.

Marco screamed as the Drop bear pressed its dagger-like claws onto his face; He struggled to punch the bear's face away from him. When a shell hit the bear on the side of the abdomen, it released its grasp and flew down to the ground. Marco caressed the scratches on his face.

"Marco, do you remember where the hunting site was?" Star asked.

"Give me a minute." Marco tried to recall various details of the clearing, such as the massive birch that provided shade and the clear view.

"Marco!"

"Don't rush me!" A chimera rushed behind Marco. It opened its gaping maw.

Brevon and the unicorn hopped over a log as the chimera nearly bit its tail.

Marco pointed to the left, "Over there, by that huge tree."

Star shifted the unicorn's direction to the left. She kicked the unicorn with the side of her foot. It rallied up, before it galloped to the tree.

"Imitation Apparito!" Faint projections of the two unicorns puffed out of smoke. The mock unicorns turned away from the real ones and sprinted away. The pack of creatures followed the copies, including the chimera.

Star and Brevon reined in their unicorns when they reached the hunting spot.

Jackie dismounted then said, "I'll check around the bushes for the scissors. Marco come down and help me."

Marco hopped down and followed Jackie into the bushes.

Star and Brevon peered through the clearing, looking for any signs of the dimensional scissors. A massive shadow was cast from overhead.

Star looked up to see an army of griffins above. Ludo's henchmen dropped from the sky and surrounded Star and Brevon. Jackie and Marco camouflage themselves in the bushes.

Ludo and his griffin descended on the clearing. Emmitt carried him down from the griffin.

"Ludo," Star said, peering into his yellow eyes. "How did you find me here, of all places?"

"Come on, Star, I'm just here to spend time with the griffins." Ludo tousled his griffin underneath its beak. "It's not like I spend all my time hunting you down."

"Actually, yeah, you kinda do," Star replied.

Ludo growled, "That's beside the point."

Brevon took his hands and placed them in a twisted, unusual position in front of his mouth. He whistled through his hands. The griffins responded to the call, converging behind him.

Bearicorn plugged his ears as Ludo pulled up his whistle. An inaudible pitch resonated in the air, as the griffins heeled in pain, grimacing and covering their own ears. Ludo stopped blowing the whistle as the griffins heaved in a sigh of relief.

"I love this thing," Ludo said as he looked at the whistle.

"So that's where the mythical Universal Whistle went," Brevon said. "I thought I lost it in the tundra years ago."

Star and Brevon pressed their backs against each other as the griffins and Ludo's henchman encircled the two.

Marco and Jackie watched the griffins squirm as Ludo continued to blow on the whistle. She still had her shotgun at hand. Jackie checked inside her ammo pouch and found a polish firecracker underneath the blank shotgun shells.

"You still have your rifle, right?" Jackie asked.

"Yeah, I do." Marco reached behind for the hunting rifle he picked out earlier that day, shuffling the leaves in the bush. "What good will it do with blanks?"

Jackie snickered, "Have you ever heard of former TV actor Jon-Erik Hexum?"

"No…" Marco raised an eyebrow.

"Well, let's just say there's a reason they don't let actors play Russian roulette with blanks off-set anymore." Jackie loaded up her shotgun with as many rounds as she could.

"Get to the other side and as soon as I set this thing off"—Jackie showed Marco the firecracker—"start firing at the crowd. Then we'll take it from there. Oh, and don't forget to put on your headphones."

Marco crawled on the outskirts of the clearing, shuffling from bush to bush. When he got to the other side, he held up a thumbs up.

Jackie lit the firecracker and tossed it in front. The crowd of griffins and Ludo's henchmen approached Star and Brevon. A goat monster with a turtle shell on his back turned around and saw the fuse on the firecracker burn out.

The canister burst into a miasma of debris. A muffled shockwave discharged around the clearing. The sound of an explosion made everyone turn their heads to cloud of smoke billowing from the blast site.

"Open fire!" Jackie and Marco fired blasts of blank shotgun shells into the crowd. Ludo's men scattered through the clearing.

"Ludo, we're surrounded," one of the henchmen said. A shell struck his abdomen. He clutched his stomach and dropped to his knees.

Ludo covered himself from the gunfire with his skull crown.

"Flush out the attackers!" Ludo commanded. "Someone keep their eyes out on Princess Butterfly!" He blasted the whistle with every last bit of breath. "Let's go, let's go!"

A trio of griffins and Emmitt rushed to the princess. Star raised her glowing wand to the side, "Cosmic Wind Slash!" With each whip of the wand, a gust of wind covered in white specs blew out. Emmitt flopped on his back by the sheer force of the wind. The griffins tumbled in the air into the trees.

"Careful with the griffins Star," Brevon said, "they're really fragile."

"I know!" Star shifted her sights to Ludo, still forcing air through the whistle.

"Hail Mary Slash!" A burst of icy wind swirled out her wand. Ludo, along with a few henchmen, froze in place. Ludo struggled to move his frozen foot off the ground. A flurry of shotgun fire blasted Ludo on his side.

In the bush, Marco emptied his rifle to the last bullet. Bearicorn dashed to the bush. Marco tossed the rifle to the side. When Bearicorn pounced into the bush, Marco clinched him with both arms. Marco pivoted to his back and threw the bear to the ground. Marco recoiled as the bear grimaced in pain.

The Big Chicken sprinted head first to Marco. Marco punted him straight in the abdomen and drove his elbow down the back of the chicken's head. It battered head-first on the dirt clearing, blasting a bit of dirt off the ground.

Ludo attempted to say something as the frost on his tongue prevented him from fully speaking.

"Buff Frog," Ludo said as the frost muffled his normally shrill voice, "help me, I can't feel my arms or legs."

"Coming Master Ludo, I'm…" A chubby, pink rabbit nuzzled up to Buff Frog's leg. Buff Frog glared at the rabbit's adorable eyes. He grinded his teeth as the rest of his body tensed up into a rigid statue.

"You… you're the rabid pink abomination." The rabbit nibbled on his shins, tickling it. "You cruel, cold-blooded murderer!" It hopped into a bush, away from the ensuing battle. "Come back here, I will have my vengeance!"

The frost around Ludo's arm made it impossible to use it to slam his forehead.

Jackie rushed to load up as many shells into the shotgun. The three-eyed potato baby popped into the bush and struggled to grab the shotgun off her hands. She dove down to her legs and slammed her feet onto his knees.

The potato baby released its grasp as it buckled down to his knees. A blast blew him on his back. The burst of compressed gasses bruised the potato baby's stomach.

The swarm of griffins nosedived into the clearing. Jackie fired to the side to scare them off, only for them to descend even faster towards her.

A bird call made the griffins reel back from the clearing. Everyone stopped fighting at that moment. Brevon walked around the clearing, whistling through his hands, which seemed to calm the vicious lion-eagle hybrids down considerably. The griffins landed on the ground and stood in stoic fashion.

Ludo, now partially thawed, crawled to the whistle laying on the ground. Brevon picked up before Ludo even reached it.

"I'll be taking this, thank you very much," Brevon said as he placed the whistle in his coat pocket. The griffins looked on as the fights resumed.

Star rose from the ground and twirled herself in a circle. Her wand glowed a rainbow-coloured aura.

"Flaming Gummy Bear Tornado Twirl!"

Star rotated like a tornado as mounds of fiery, projectile gummy bears shot out from her wand. The gummy bears pelted everyone in the vicinity, burning and cauterizing their skin.

"Hey, I love gummy bears!" Bearicorn said as he opened his mouth. The flaming sweets sped to his mouth. He screamed as the inside of his mouth caught on fire.

"Cover me, Marco," Jackie pleaded. She wrapped her arms around Marco and snuck her head underneath his.

Thank you, Marco thought to himself. He sighed dreamily as Jackie held onto him tighter. Marco didn't notice the few flaming gummies landing on his head, setting his hair on fire.

Star drifted onto the ground. The last of the gummy bears sputtered out of her wand. Marco and Jackie caught up to her, Marco still in a dazed stupor.

Jackie surveyed the surroundings. "Wow that was…" Ludo and his minions were scattered around the clearing. Most struggled to stand back up. A few fires littered around the area, as one burning tree tumbled on top of the potato baby. "…something."

"This is just a typical Saturday," Marco said.

Star bumped her elbow onto Marco and said, "You're really taking the 3 C's to heart, aren't you?" Marco raised a confused eyebrow towards her. "You're the first person I know who can brush off being burned alive."

Marco reached his hand on top of his head, feeling the flames. His eyes widened as he dropped to the ground and rolled side-to-side.

Star blasted a blue aura on his head, extinguishing the fire. He collapsed on the ground, leaning his head back.

"Thanks for the help, Star," Brevon said, tussling her hair. "Your father would be very proud right now; he truly raised a fantastic warrior."

Star's faced beamed under the sunlight as her lips formed an uncontainable grin.

"Don't worry about the griffins and other animals, the effects from the whistle wear off quickly." Brevon pulled out the whistle from his coat pocket. "As for this little thing, I'm not gonna keep my eyes off it for the rest of my life. This thing can be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands."

"Great." Jackie took a deep breath and said, "Now, we just gotta find that pair of—"

"Oh!" Jackie and the rest turned their heads to Star, who held the scissors in her other hand. "Turns out it was in the other zipper the whole time."

Toffee sat on Ludo's throne, reading his book while resting his arm on the pile of throw pillows he placed to the side. He sipped on his piping hot cup of tea, savouring the hint of mint on top of the bold, bitter aftertaste. He paid no attention the dimensional tear as Ludo and his henchmen trudged through the portal.

They passed out on the floor when they came in. The three-eyed potato baby tried to pull the blank cartridge out of his stomach. Bearicorn stuck his tongue out, prodding the singed muscle.

Ludo crawled out of the portal as it closed on itself. Toffee stood from the throne and knelt down to the diminutive ruler.

"Tough day?"

Ludo nodded.

"You lost the whistle as well, haven't you?"

Ludo nodded again.

"That's fine," Toffee said with a shrug, "I can always get another one." He raised a hand to Ludo and helped him off the ground. "Say, do you remember where you placed the contraband rocks?"

"Break room," Ludo replied with a hoarse voice, "in the cupboard near the fridge."

"Thank you."

Toffee directed himself to the break room, stepping over the lying bodies of henchmen.

"I'm not gonna question it," Dale said as he drove his car with a manticore tied on top the sunroof. "Just make sure mom doesn't see it, okay?"

"Got it, Dale," Jackie replied while wiping the barrel of her shotgun.

Marco slouched in his seat as he prodded Star's sleepy head away from his shoulder.

"So, did everyone have a good time?"

"Yeah," Marco said, "we did. We should do this again, sometime."

Jackie snickered and said, "Well, if you wanna hang out sometime, maybe we could do something a little less dangerous, if that's okay with you."

"Yeah, I'm cool with that," he said, nonchalantly. Without anyone noticing, Marco danced in his seat, while a tear of joy dripped down his eye.

Dale rolled up to the driveway and parked on the asphalt. Marco prodded Star out of sleep. They opened the car doors and stepped onto the pavement.

"Are you two sure you don't want me to drop you off home?" Dale asked.

"No, it's fine," Star said as she lifted the drowsy manticore off the sunroof.

Star and Marco hopped onto the manticore's back. It strolled into the streets.

"Bye, Jackie," Star said, waving at her. Jackie waved back before collecting the pile of guns out of the trunk.

"That went surprisingly well," Marco said.

"I know we made so much progress." Star tussled the manticore's mane. "In the span of a day, we went from barely ever talking to Jackie to being friends with Jackie."

"Yeah, that's amazing, by the end of the week, we can be at step—"

The pain of a thousand needles punctured through Marco's back. He turned around to find the manticore's tail embedded near the middle of his back.

"Star…"

"Yeah, Marco?"

"I can't feel my back."

Star turned around and saw the manticore tail stabbing Marco. "Three C's Marco. Keep thinking about the three C's" She rallied the manticore to sprint down the street. "The more you panic, the faster you start losing limbs."

Thanks for reading!